Setting up a second wireless access point can be a hassle. Not having the money to spare for a genuine wireless access point, I decided to get a Trendnet TEW-432BRP wireless router on sale and configure it as such. What follows is how I set is up the Trendnet TEW-432BRP as a second wireless access point on my home LAN.

The Efficient Networks Speedstream 6300 wireless dsl modem/router provided by my ISP is a true piece of near garbage. It chokes whenever there’s a large amount of data flowing across my LAN, requiring a reboot. For this reason, it’s connected to an old Linksys BEFSR41 ver.2 dsl router acting as a switch.

Recently, my wireless connection to the Speedstream 6300 had degraded to the point that, even casual web browsing would require it to be rebooted. This is where the Trendnet TEW-432BRP comes in. You’ll see how to configure the Trendnet wireless router as a second wireless access point. In my particular case, it’s connected to the Linksys router which is connected to the Speedstream. The latter is acting as both my primary gateway and DNS server.

In the breakdown of the following setup, you’ll notice that DHCP has been disabled for each router. Assigning a static IP and keeping a list of them in the /etc/hosts file on my Debian server is a personal preference. Also, no SSID is broadcasted for the WLAN, and dynamic routing is used.

The rest of the settings on the Trendnet TEW-432BRP and Linksys BEFSR41 are left at their default – except for the passwords of course. Also, both the TEW-432BRP and Speedstream 6300 use encryption for the wireless connection.

The limitation of the Linksys BEFSR41 is that all the LAN ports do not auto-detect. Only one of the ports can act as an uplink port to another router, switch or hub. In my case, it’s used to connect to the Speedstream 6300. Fortunately, the Trendnet TEW-432BRP’s LAN ports are all auto-MIDIX, so it can connect to any of the Linksys’s LAN ports.

The advantage of this kind of set up is that, even if the Speedstream 6300 fails, the LAN and WLAN can keep going – except for the WAN connection. Also, no more grief over large file transfers nor non-existent wireless connections.

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